A short one page publication this week. This was produced jointly by the Workers Solidarity Movement and Organise!-IWA. It outlines a range of activities and meetings held by both organisations both jointly and separately. It focuses on a ‘National Day of Action Against Racism’ and also has a piece by Organise!-IWA members who participated in ‘the Ideas and Action national anarchist gathering hosted by the WSM’. Also included is a list of other organisations which anarchists are involved in.

Also included in this post are various stickers produced by anarchist organisations on the island.

This is an interesting addition to the collection of publications from BICO in the Left Archive. Sixteen pages long, it provides an overview of the history of the Communist Party of Ireland from the perspective of the British and Irish Communist Organisation.

It is reasonable to argue that this perspective is deeply critical. Some flavour of this is evident from the opening words of the introduction:

The Communist Party of Ireland has constantly placed itself in a rearguard position, fighting at every stage of the development of Irish society to prevent the society form abandoning ideals which it was outgrowing…

The effect of this ideology has been to shackle the small section of the Irish working class that fell under community influence to the reactionary and unreliable ideals of national self-sufficiency, ‘national’ unification and defence of the small producer. Basically the CPI has been powerless to retard social development. Realising its impotence the CPI has sought alliances in strange quarters. These have included the republican movement and the most reactionary sections of the Catholic Church.

The remainder of the work is divided into various chapters addressing the development of the CPI.

Many thanks to Jim Monaghan for forwarding this very interesting document – issued by the Irish School Students Union from 1972. The newsletter outlines a range of activities that the ISU was involved in including meeting the Chief Executive officer of the VEC – as well as noting that they were unable to attend a meeting on Youth Security in Helsinki.

It would be very useful to have further information on the ISU and its goals.

Also included is a leaflet demanding the establishment of a Secondary Students Union which presumably predates the above document.

This repost of the Saor Éire (Cork) publication People’s Voice brings a better copy of the edition to the Archive and many thanks to Jim Lane for that. There’s much to consider in the 12 page issue. It has a range of articles – one on TACA (which notes that ‘Jobbery is our game’), an outline of the position of workers under Franco, another on Nixon, a piece on ‘The Red Flag over Knocklong’ and another on the Derry Riots.

Perhaps most interesting is an Open Letter to Republicans. This is in response to an article in the November 1968 issue of the United Irishman entitled ‘The dilemma of Sinn Féin’.

Saor Éire argue that:

…regardless of our well known hostility towards the political course pursued by the movement over the past few years, we will be the first to admit that it certainly appears to have had the positive, and therefore welcome effect of shaking the movement out of the lethargy and political fantasy which had dogged it for so long.

And it continues that while the article in the UI saw the dilemma being that SF faced a ‘stronger radical movement made up of the Free State Labour Party in alliance with the Trade Unions’ it sees it differently.

In our view the [Labour Party is not a radical body], it never has been and it never will be. And in all fairness to that party, it has never claimed to be radical, in the sense that the term is clearly understood by revolutionaries.

And it continues that the real dilemma facing the Republican Movement is parliamentarianism.

REFORM OR REVOLUTION: THIS IS the question now facing Radical Republicans. The present Republican Movement, due to factors endowed by its organised life, and by the middle class ideology which originally instituted and shaped its structure, is incapable of reorientation to meet the requirements presently demanded of a radical movement. therefore for Republican radicals to continue to uphold the movement in the light of recent disclosures means in effect they opt for reformism and cease to be radicals.

And in conclusion it calls for the building of a ‘new movement, which by being radical in its objects, will also be the true inheritor of that revolutionary pattern of development that is the proud tradition of our people’.

The document itself is twelve pages long and is remarkably comprehensive. A thoughtful cartoon decorates the front cover while the slogan People’s Power is prominent upon it. Inside there is a long analysis of the then recent attacks by the RUC and others on a Civil Rights protest march in Derry on October 5th. The piece is deeply critical of many involved arguing that ‘irrespective of the immediate reactions of those prominent in the organisation of the protest, their subsequent actions demonstrate that had they even dreamt of its outcome they would never have gone ahead with it in the first place’.

And it continues:

It would be naive for the people to go on thinking their disabilities under the Unionist regime would be mitigated should they receive the so-called ‘democratic rights’ the present fake leadership aspire to secure. They HAVE ‘democracy’ at present, as it is interpreted by the middle class; and any changes introduced or secured within the context of the present order of things will never alter the fundamental relationships which are the root cause of the trouble.

A short column on ‘As We See It’ mentions amongst other things a poster used by Fine Gael that year…

Joke of the month must surely be the advertisements of Fine Gael depicting the Nazi salute and jackboot, intimating their future use by Fianna Fáil should the straight vote become a reality. Talk about the kettle calling the pot-black ass – Christ, this is doing it with a vengeance. Oh, if only O’Duffy could see this, sure it would warm the cockles of his heart to know that the ‘Long Fella’ in the park could well be wearing a blue shirt in the near future.

Another pieces notes that:

In its recently published revised programme, the CPGB calls for ‘revolutionary’ change, but this apparently is to be brought about ‘by peaceful means and without armed struggle’. The old bogy of nuclear war, should the people resort to armed struggle, is also conjured up by these refugees from a Texan spittoon. British capitalism will never be without a friend for so long as the old CPGB is around and that’s for sure.

And it calls on the Workers’ Party (Irish Communist Party prior to merger with CPNI) to support armed struggle and distinguish itself from the CPGB, noting that ‘their spokesmen were quick enough in making know their opposition to the recent imperialist actions of the Soviet Union’.

Other articles include a reprint of a piece from the Irish People of January 30th 1864 entitled ’No More Humbug’. Another engages with the then recent PR referendum and notes that ‘we found it very difficult to get all worked up on the issue’. And concludes:

LET THE PEOPLE BE WAR OF THOSE WHO talk about their ‘democratic rights’ under the parliamentary system. There are no such rights.

Another piece seeks ‘Land for the People’ and there is a reprint of a poem ‘The Guerrilla Fighter’ from the PROGRESSIVE WORKER of Canada.

The centre pages are taken up by a spread that outlines the objects of Saor Éire, and notes that:

IN ESSENCE, OUR MINIMUM PROGRAMME is to mobilise the Working People under the banner of Socialism; to mobilise People’s Power for the purpose of unleashing it for the attainment of a People’s Republic, embracing all of the national territory and committed unreservedly to the People’s interests.

And it notes:

OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS THERE HAS been much talk on the need for a new movement. We have now given concrete reality to this talk, by crating an alternative which is resolute in purpose, clear in its aims and determined on victory. Saor Éire stands as a rallying point for all those who want to transform the nation. LET US NOW PROCEED WITH THAT TASK!

All told a very comprehensive document.

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Many thanks to Tony Williams for forwarding this to both the Left Archive and Irish Election Literature. Produced on behalf of the Irish Worker League, which was the Larkin party, it outlines IWL candidates for the 1930 Dublin Municipal League. For further information on the IWL see here.

The group was notable for its links to the Comintern and Moscow.

Avowedly working-class it outlines a range of issues on which the candidates are standing. These include Union Wages, Union Conditions, Security of Tenancy, Reduction of Municipal House Rents, the Continuance of Rent Restriction Act and Houses.

The candidates include Frank Cluskey, a Trade Union Secretary (Butchers), Hilary Williams a Bricklayer and John Sunderland a Railway Worker.

A very useful addition to the Archive. Any other materials from the Irish Worker League would be very welcome.

This is an interesting publication which appears to be linked in some respect to Official Sinn Féin. It’s broad thrust is that of a community/residents/tenants newspaper and it has a lot of material in it ranging from news about the area to cartoons and ballads. Subjects addressed include school meals and attacks on the government.

The editorial board thanks ‘The Galway News’ ‘for their invaluable assistance’. There’s also a brief note on Joe McCann noting that ‘on the 13th of April, one year ago, the British paras shot Joe McCann dead in his native markets area of Belfast… one of the finest of our latter day revolutionaries’.

Any further information about it or those involved would be very very welcome.

This newspaper from Independent Labour, the formation that had formerly been Militant Labour and would later become the Socialist Party, is a well produced four page large format publication.

On the front cover it notes ‘Councillor Joe Higgins says: “if you want to fight for change, join Independent Labour in Dublin West…we are campaigning hard on the issues affecting working-class people, fighting for jobs and facilities and for a democratic, socialist society run for the good of the majority rather than for the privileged few. Get in touch now. Join our campaigns’.

The focus of the newspaper is strongly on the local. The cover story is headlined ‘West Dublin Cries Out For Facilities’. Inside there is a piece on high unemployment in Blanchardstown and Clondalkin. However there are also pieces on other topics including one on Gaza and a recent visit there from Joe Higgins.

A very comprehensive Council Report outlines Joe Higgins work on that body since his election the previous June. There is also a piece on how Higgins is ‘to stand in the general election’. The piece details his previous membership of the Labour Party.

Also in the newspaper is an article by Ruth Coppinger and another that outlines what Independent Labour stands for under the heading “Genuine Socialism can solve Crisis”. This notes that:

ILP in Dublin West stands in the tradition of great socialists like James Connolly and Jim Larkin and believe in a genuine socialist society where the working-class majority govern.

This has nothing in common with the Stalinist dictatorships which ruled in the USSR and Eastern Europe from the late 1920s until recently when they were heroically overthrown by revolutions of workers and youth.

Revolutionary Struggle was an activist group in Dublin, from 1975 until the mid 1980s. It was involved in the production of the Ripening of Time publication and Rebel. Drawing on New Left influences it was avowedly Marxist-Leninist in orientation.

This edition has a broad range of topics covered in its 12 pages. Articles included engage with the Nicky Kelly imprisonment, British plans for the Six Counties, Workers Struggles and Anti-Toxic Opposition. There’s a somewhat slapdash style to the publication, not least the cover image depicting a hammer smashing Capital and State. Of particular interest is that this was published during the period of the Falklands War. This argues that:

…the Argentinian fascists and the Tory right-wingers are trying to outdo each other in posturing and threatening noises. Ideally, two right wing set-ups butchering each other could be quite positive for the revolution. If it weren’t for the fact that the world is a powder keg right now…and that Armies lose wards whilst he working class loses its sons.

The piece on the Six Counties has a critique of then plans by the British government for Northern Ireland articulated in the ‘Framework for Devolution’. It notes that:

This time around power sharing has been dropped as a concept and objective. Instead we have this absurd 70% which is supposed to be the ruse to con both sides… and convince the British that a position is acceptable to both sides [if a decision had 70% agreement in the Assembly that would be sent to Westminster].

Another piece looks at the French Socialist government under Francois Mitterand and the impact of the anti-nuclear struggle there. Some interesting points about how trade unions and parts of the left broke over the issue.

There is an editorial on the last page which notes that:

Most comrades who had put a lot of hopes in the H-Block/Armagh mobilisation of last year have now come to recognise – and admit – that in 1982, the revolutionary anti-imperialist movement suffered a defeat… a set-back. The reality of that defeat and its political consequences have not been played out yet. But we can see some of the effects in the large-scale mass confusion in the 6 counties as well as the widespread rise of social-democratic and reformist politics in the 26 Counties.

For us, in Rebel and Revolutionary Struggle, both aspects of this 1982 Irish reality are not only interlinked and dialectically connected, but demonstrate how, in practice, the NATIONAL and SOCIAL struggles are the two poles of the very same equation; THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM AND ITS LOCAL ALLIES.